Dangerous Oleander Extract Not a COVID-19 cure

An unusual and highly toxic compound makes headlines after President Trump reported it in an interview in the Oval Office.

Axios reports that Trump expressed support for oleandrin, a botany made from the poisonous oleander plant, during a meeting in July attended by MyPillow.com founder and CEO Mike Lindell and housing and urban development secretary Ben Carson, MD.

Lindell, a longtime Trump supporter who has an interest in the biotech that develops oleandrin – Phoenix Biotechnology – told Axios that Trump said “the FDA must approve it.”

FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn, MD, has opposed any efforts to make the connection, according to Axios, but Phoenix Biotechnology director Andrew Whitney has said if he can not get oleander in the market as a medication, he will carry it as a dietary supplement.

The thought of another potentially dangerous compound being touted by the Trump administration as a “miracle cork,” such as hydroxychloroquine, had medical experts tweeted on Monday.

“Oleandrin? Yes that would definitely end up killing people,” tweeted David Juurlink, MD, PhD, from Sunnybrook Health Sciences Center in Toronto.

Juurlink told MedPage Today that oleandrin is “related to digoxin. Too much can cause nausea, vomiting and diarrhea, but the main concern is arrhythmias, which can be fatal.”

Jennifer Gunter, MD, tweeted that it is “easier to kill a person with oleandrin than COVID-19” and highlighted a case report in which two people were poisoned after eating snails mixed on an oleander plant.

What makes oleander – the word generally occupies it Nerium oleander, Nerium indicum, en Nerium odorum plants, and other common names are kaner, rosebay and rose laurel – so deadly? All parts of it contain cardiac glycosides, the most potent of which are oleandrin and neriin, both of which are similar to the main cardiac glycoside of foxglove, digoxin.

According to a 2010 report and review, oleandrin interacts directly with the heart’s sodium-potassium pump, potentially leading to arrhythmias. Education also causes gastrointestinal effects, and both appear about four hours after ingestion.

Authors of an earlier case report calculated that 4 grams of oleander leaves would be fatal.

Juurlink marked a case report in which a patient committed suicide with oleander leaves. This paper estimates the toxic blood levels of oleandrin at 1 to 2 ng / ml and a fatal blood level of 9.8 to 10 ng / ml.

To date, there is no published evidence that oleandrin can help patients with COVID-19. A recent study tests the association against SARS-CoV-2 in Vero cells, but no animal or human data are available for this indication. That research was a preprint in bioRxiv and one of its authors, Robert Newman, is the chairman of the Scientific Advisory Board for Phoenix Biotechnology.

Oleandrin has also been studied in vitro as a possible anti-cancer medication, but it is “unclear whether these effects can occur in the human body,” according to an information page from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center on oleandrin.

“No one should take oleandrin to prevent COVID,” Juurlink said MedPage Today. “Everyone who is reasonable and foolish enough to take it despite this advice should get their affairs in order in advance.”

Last updated August 18, 2020